PawnMaster Blog

Vernon Stading

Vernon has a passion for helping businesses be more successful and that is why he founded Devoted Business Development and the Small Business Advisory Board of MN. He has a strong leadership background and has been helping business owners succeed and make more money for more than 15 years. Vernon has extensive knowledge in the retail, pawn, jewelry, financial services and hotel industries and he worked for two international franchise companies before learning the pawn industry. He got to learn from the pawn business experts who are looked at as leaders and revolutionaries in the industry. Vernon also met many other folks that were nationwide and international consultants along the way who have a lot of great ideas and suggestions on how to improve businesses in this industry. Vernon learned the business so well, that after leaving that organization, he started his own consulting firm with most our first clients being pawn stores. He was approached by several nationwide chains and asked to do merger and acquisition for them. He got to experience firsthand the amazing and fast-paced growth of small, medium, and a large sized chain by buying other organizations, fixing them and putting their name and brand on them. He was able to work with every type of location, from the 38,000 square-foot Taj Mahal pawn shops to the 2,000 square-foot hole in wall, and everything in between. In addition, he is an expert at helping business owners create processes, systems, policies and procedures that streamline their business and ultimately help them make more money with less work. Regardless of what your business needs are, he is an ideal candidate to help take your company to the next level.

You may be wondering “Why do I even need a commission structure for my team,” or “What is the perfect one for my business model”? This is something that we believe very strongly in and that we want to address here today. In fact, we even talk about this in our Pawn Health Check because we feel it is that important. First let’s start with, "Why do I need a commission plan in the first place?"

"My name is Vernon Stading and I am the owner and founder of Devoted Business Development and we help pawn shops and jewelry stores make more money and be more profitable. I got into this business really kind of by accident, one of the fun stories I like to tell is that my background is actually in franchising.

Establishing relationships is one thing, but maintaining them is a business art form all its own. According to a study, repeat customers spend nearly 70% more on average than new clients. This is especially true in the hospitality and retail industries. Thus, it pays to continue strengthening these existing relationships, remembering to engage with your customers on a regular basis. Feel free to set up reminders in tune with a schedule that works for you, but quarterly check-ins are a solid rule of thumb for starters. What have you done to stay in contact with your customers?

PawnMaster can act as a database for you. You can easily reach your customers regularly through their text messaging platform.

As you know, we love the pawn industry. A few weeks ago, we presented and exhibited at the NPA Convention in Las Vegas I heard something very disturbing. I must have heard at least 200 owners talk about how they are not making money the way they used to in this industry. What is more disturbing is at least half of those, when asked why not, immediately responded” because gold is down from $1,856 at its highest to $1,230 an oz. now... It amazes me that so many of the people we spoke to had this as their main reason for down profits. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the price of gold is only one of the many challenges you face right now that is causing less profitability in your pawn shops than in years past.